But I don't see how you can really leave him off. He might pass Moyer this year for most Franchise wins and already passed Randy in 2015, he has the same # of Cy Youngs that Randy did when he was here... what's missing? Sure, he might turn into a Santana-level derailment and take a potential HOF career off a cliff, but at this exact moment, if you've got that vote, you giving it to Felix, A-Rod or Ichiro?
For me the three dudes carved in already are Gar, Randy and Junior. Without those three Hall of Famers, these are the Tampa Bay Mariners. A-Rod wasn't around for that city-saving run, so he gets no credit, and he didn't re-up. You can't put a guy who still gets booed by the home-town fans over a decade later on their Franchise Four mountaintop.
So it's between Felix and Ichiro for me, and while I love Ichiro, I always felt like we were renting him, like he's the Japanese Rickey Henderson. That's not fair to Ichiro, but Felix loves this city. Nobody can top that tear-soaked press conference where he talks about getting us to the playoffs and winning for his adoptive town. Ichiro was respected enough to stay here, but Felix bleeds to be here. Might just be a cultural difference, but I feel Felix more, and the guy is halfway to the Hall now.
I put Felix in as the fourth. Two pitchers, two hitters. All of them Hall members in time, given health in one case and an end to voter stupidity in another. I'm proud of that mountain-top as a fan. I just wish it was more than 4 faces propped up on poles. We've had a very skinny talent pyramid. If we could spread it out even a LITTLE, maybe we'd have more than a couple glory years to look back on in our history.